Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) would progress to its full processing capacity at the Ranger mine, in the Northern Territory, during the September quarter.
The ASX-listed miner undertook a progressive restart of the Ranger processing plant in June this year, after receiving written approval from both the state and commonwealth government.
Plant operations at the Ranger mine were suspended since December last year, after a mixture of slurry moved outside the containment area, following the failure of a leach tank.
The miner said on Thursday that following the restart of the processing operations, some 46 000 t of ore was milled during June; however, no uranium oxide was drummed or packed for shipment prior to the end of the month.
Meanwhile, ERA noted that all other operations, including the development of the exploration decline and the progressive rehabilitation of the Ranger project area continued during the three months to June.
The initial backfill of Pit 3 also continued to progress ahead of schedule, with some 4.2-million tonnes of waste material moved during the quarter. The infrastructure required to convert Pit 3 into a tailings repository would be installed during the second half of the year.